The Good Soldier Švejk

Publication

Hašek originally intended Švejk to cover a total of six volumes, but had completed only three (and started on the fourth) upon his death from heart failure on January 3, 1923. Excerpts of Der Brave Soldat Schwejk Chapter 1, translated into German by Max Brod, were published two days after Hašek's death in the Prague German language paper, Prager Tagblatt, January 5 1923.

Following Hašek's death, journalist Karel Vaněk was asked by the publisher Adolf Synek to complete the unfinished novel. This continuation was released as Švejk in Russian Captivity and Revolution (Švejk v Ruském Zajetí a Revoluci).

The novel as a whole was originally illustrated (after Hašek's death) by Josef Lada and more recently by Czech illustrator Petr Urban.

The volumes are:

1. Behind the Lines (V zázemí, 1921)
2. At the Front (Na frontě, 1922)
3. The Glorious Licking (Slavný výprask, 1922)
4. The Glorious Licking Continued (Pokračování slavného výprasku, 1923; unfinished)

Following Max Brod's first steps at a German translation, he introduced the book to Grete Reiner, Executive Editor of the anti-fascist magazine Deutsche Folkszeitung. Her translation of Schwejk into German in 1926 was largely responsible for the speedy dissemination of Svejk's fame across Europe. It was one of the books burned by the Nazis in 1933. Her translation was said to be one of Bertolt Brecht's favourite books. Grete Reiner-Straschnow was murdered in Auschwitz on 9 March 1944.

Themes

The novel is set during World War I in Austria-Hungary, a multi-ethnic empire full of long-standing ethnic tensions. Fifteen million people died in the War, one million of them Austro-Hungarian soldiers including around 140,000 who were Czechs. Jaroslav Hašek participated in this conflict and examined it in The Good Soldier Švejk.

Many of the situations and characters seem to have been inspired, at least in part, by Hašek's service in the 91st Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The novel also deals with broader anti-war themes: essentially a series of absurdly comic episodes, it explores the pointlessness and futility of conflict in general and of military discipline, Austrian military discipline in particular. Many of its characters, especially the Czechs, are participating in a conflict they do not understand on behalf of an empire to which they have no loyalty.

The character of Josef Švejk is a development of this theme. Through (possibly feigned) idiocy or incompetence he repeatedly manages to frustrate military authority and expose its stupidity in a form of passive resistance: the reader is left unclear, however, as to whether Švejk is genuinely incompetent, or acting quite deliberately with dumb insolence. These absurd events reach a climax when Švejk, wearing a Russian uniform, is mistakenly taken prisoner by his own troops.

In addition to satirising Habsburg authority, Hašek repeatedly sets out corruption and hypocrisy attributed to priests of the Catholic Church.

Plot summary

The story begins in Prague with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitates World War I.

Švejk displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Austrian Emperor in battle that no one can decide whether he is merely an imbecile or is craftily undermining the war effort. He is arrested by a member of the state police, Bretschneider, after making some politically sensitive remarks, and is sent to prison. After being certified insane he is transferred to a madhouse, before being ejected.

Švejk gets his charwoman to wheel him (he claims to be suffering from rheumatism) to the recruitment offices in Prague, where his apparent zeal causes a minor sensation. He is transferred to a hospital for malingerers because of his rheumatism. He finally joins the army as batman to army chaplain Otto Katz; Katz loses him at cards to Senior Lieutenant Lukáš, whose batman he then becomes.

Lukáš is posted with his march battalion to barracks in České Budějovice, in Southern Bohemia, preparatory to being sent to the front. After missing all the trains to Budějovice, Švejk embarks on a long anabasis on foot around Southern Bohemia in a vain attempt to find Budějovice, before being arrested as a possible spy and deserter (a charge he strenuously denies) and escorted to his regiment.

The regiment is soon transferred to Bruck an der Leitha, a town on the border between Austria and Hungary. Here, where relations between the two nationalities are somewhat sensitive, Švejk is again arrested, this time for causing an affray involving a respectable Hungarian citizen and engaging in a street fight. He is also promoted to company orderly.

The unit embarks on a long train journey towards Galicia and the Eastern Front. Close to the front line, Švejk is taken prisoner by his own side as a suspected Russian deserter, after arriving at a lake and trying on an abandoned Russian uniform. Narrowly avoiding execution, he manages to rejoin his unit. The unfinished novel breaks off abruptly before Švejk has a chance to be involved in any combat or enter the trenches, though it appears Hašek may have conceived that the characters would have continued the war in a POW camp, much as he himself had done.

The book includes numerous anecdotes told by Švejk on nearly any occasion (often either to deflect the attentions of an authority figure, or to insult them in a concealed manner) which are not directly related to the plot.

Selected characters

The characters of The Good Soldier Švejk are generally either used as the butt of Hašek's absurdist humour or represent fairly broad social and ethnic stereotypes found in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. People are often distinguished by the dialect and register of Czech or German they speak, a quality that does not translate easily. Many German- and Polish-speaking characters, for example, are shown as speaking comedically broken or heavily accented Czech, while many Czechs speak broken German; much use is also made of slang expressions.

Some characters seem to have been partly based on real people serving with the Imperial and Royal 91st Infantry Regiment, in which Hašek served as a one-year volunteer.

Josef Švejk

The novel's hero: in civilian life a dealer in stolen dogs. Based on the young batman to Oberleutnant Lukáš, Hašek's company commander, František Strašlipka.

Palivec

The foul-mouthed landlord of Švejk's local pub – the "U Kalicha" ("By the Chalice") on Na Bojišti street, Prague. Despite refusal to discuss any politics ("it smells of Pankrác") Palivec is eventually arrested by Bretschneider (see below) after commenting that flies shit on the portrait of Franz Joseph in the pub.

Police Agent Bretschneider

A secret policeman who repeatedly tries to catch Švejk and others out on their anti-monarchist views. He was eventually eaten by his own dogs, after buying a succession of animals from Švejk in an attempt to incriminate him.

Staff Warder Slavík

A cruel and corrupt prison official (revealed to have himself ended up in prison under the Republic of Czechoslovakia).

Military chaplain Otto Katz

with a fondness for drinking, especially good communion wine, and gambling. Švejk seems fond of Katz, but the latter loses the services of Švejk to Lieutenant Lukáš in a game of cards.

Oberleutnant Lukáš

Švejk's long-suffering company commander. A Czech from South Bohemia, Lukáš is something of a womanizer but is depicted in a broadly sympathetic manner by Hašek (the records of the real-life 91st Regiment show an Oberleutnant Rudolf Lukas (the same rank as the character) at the time of Hašek's service; Hašek admired Lukas and even wrote him a number of poems). Lukas was Hašek's company commander. Though Švejk's actions eventually lead to Lukáš being labelled as a notorious philanderer in the Hungarian national press, he starts to miss Švejk after the latter is promoted to company orderly.

Colonel Friedrich Kraus von Zillergut

An idiotic Austrian officer with a penchant for giving his colleagues long-winded, moronic explanations of everyday objects (such as thermometers and postage stamps) and situations; run over by a cart while attempting to demonstrate what a pavement is. Kraus's dog is stolen by Švejk as a gift for Lukáš; the enraged colonel subsequently arranges Lukáš's transfer to the front.

Captain Ságner

One of the regiment's professional officers and commander of Švejk's march battalion; an ambitious careerist, he is later revealed to have been a closet Czech patriot in his youth. A Captain Vinzenz Sagner served in the 91st Regiment, where he was Hašek's battalion commander.

Colonel Schröder

The bad-tempered colonel of Švejk's regiment, and a caricature of a typical German-speaking senior officers of the Austrian army.

Jurajda

The battalion's spiritualist cook; before military service he had edited an "occultist" journal. Spends time attempting to avoid frontline service through letters he is writing to his wife, in which he details meals he is intending to cook for senior officers.

2nd Lieutenant Dub

Dub is a Czech schoolmaster, reserve officer, and commander of the battalion's 3rd company: he has strongly monarchist views. As a conservative, pro-Habsburg Czech, Dub is the subject of some of Hašek's most vicious satire. Repeatedly placed in humiliating situations, such as being found drunk in a brothel or falling off a horse (in all Slavonic languages the word 'dub' ('oak') itself is a common synonym for a dull, idiotic person). He is said to have been based on a lieutenant of the reserve, Mechálek, who served in Hašek's regiment.

Quartermaster Sergeant-Major Vaněk

Another recurring character, Vaněk (a chemist from Kralupy nad Vltavou in civilian life) is an example of an easy-going but self-serving senior NCO, whose main concern is to make his own existence as comfortable as possible. A Jan Vaněk served in Hašek's regiment, and has some traits in common with the figure from the novel (domicile and occupation).

Volunteer Marek

The character of one-year volunteer Marek is to some degree a self-portrait by the author, who was himself a one-year volunteer in the 91st. For example, Marek — like Hašek — was fired from the editorship of a natural history magazine after writing articles about imaginary animals. Is appointed the battalion historian by Ságner and occupies himself with devising memorable and heroic deaths in advance for his colleagues.

First-Class Private Vodička

A sapper friend of Švejk noted mainly for his extreme hatred of Hungarians, which leads to an unfortunate incident in Bruck an der Leitha.

Lieutenant Biegler (Cadet Biegler)

Biegler is a young junior officer with pretensions to nobility, despite being the middle-class son of a furrier. Biegler takes his military duties so seriously that he is ridiculed even by his senior officers, and is mistakenly hospitalised as a "carrier of cholera germs" after medical staff misdiagnose (for army PR reasons) a cognac-induced hangover. Cadet Biegler also had a real-life model in the 91st regiment (Cadet Johann Biegler, later lieutenant).

Captain Tayrle

The brigade adjutant and a particularly disgusting example of a headquarters officer, whose interests appear to lie mainly in crude jokes and sampling of local prostitutes.

General Fink von Finkenstein

An aristocratic, vicious and near-insane senior Austrian officer and commander of the garrison fort of Przemyśl, Fink treats his men with extreme brutality. Almost succeeds in having Švejk executed after the latter is taken prisoner by his own side.

Chaplain Martinec

A chaplain plagued by drink-induced spiritual doubts, whose attempt to provide spiritual consolation to Švejk ends in disaster.

"Sergeant Teveles"

A man in possession of a silver Military Merit Medal, purchased from a Bosnian, and claiming to be a Sergeant Teveles, who had previously disappeared along with the entire 6th March Company during fighting in Belgrade.

Private Baloun

A miller from Český Krumlov in civilian life, and Švejk's successor as Lukáš's batman, Baloun is a glutton and is regularly punished for stealing Lukáš's food. Will eat raw dough, sausage skins, etc., when nothing else is available.

Literary significance and criticism

A number of literary critics consider The Good Soldier Švejk to be one of the first anti-war novels, predating Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Joseph Heller said that if he had not read The Good Soldier Švejk, he would never have written his novel Catch-22.

Broader cultural influence

The idiocy and subversion of Švejk has entered the Czech language in the form of words such as švejkovina ("švejking"), švejkovat ("to švejk"), švejkárna (military absurdity), etc. The name has also entered the English dictionary, in the form of Schweik, "A person likened to the character of Schweik, pictured as an unlucky and simple-minded but resourceful little man oppressed by higher authorities," and the derivative forms to Schweik, Schweikism, and Schweikist.

In the British television documentary Hollywood (1979), a history of American silent films, director Frank Capra claimed the screen character of comedian Harry Langdon, which Capra helped to formulate, was partially inspired by The Good Soldier Švejk.

At Prague's NATO summit in 2002, a man dressed as the Good Soldier and using Svejk's typical crutches to support himself, appeared at an anti-alliance protest, shouting at the top of his voice: "To Baghdad, Mrs Muller, to Baghdad...", showing just how deep the character is etched on the Czech psyche.

Adaptations

Švejk is the subject of films, plays, an opera, a musical, comic books, and statues, even the theme of restaurants in a number of European countries. The novel is also the subject of an unpublished operetta by Peter Gammond. Švejk has statues and monuments for example in Humenné, Slovakia, Przemyśl and Sanok in Poland, in Russian Saint Petersburg, Omsk and Bugulma and in Ukraine Kiev, Lviv and Donetsk. The first statue of Švejk in the Czech Republic was unveiled in August 2014, in the village of Putim in South Bohemia.

1927-1928: Piscatorbühne, Nollendorfplatz, Berlin. The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schwejk stage play adapted from Hašek's novel by Max Brod, Hans Reimann, Erwin Piscator, Felix Gasbarra [1], and Bertolt Brecht, with sets by George Grosz.

1935: Arthur Koestler mentions in his autobiography that in 1935 he was commissioned by Willy Münzenberg, the Comintern propagandist, to write a novel called The Good Soldier Schweik Goes to War Again. He adds that the project was cancelled by the Communist Party when half the book had been written due to what they termed the book's "pacifist errors".

1943: Bertolt Brecht writes Schweik in the Second World War, a play which continues the adventures of Švejk into World War II.

1957: Robert Kurka writes an opera based on the novel.

1965: BBC 60 minute television adaptation The Good Soldier Schweik starring Kenneth Colley, John Collin and Felix Felton.

2002: Sotha of the Café de la Gare writes a play, Le Brave Soldat Chvéïk s'en va au Ciel (The Good Soldier Schweik goes to Heaven), based on novel.

2008: BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a two-part radio adaptation starring Sam Kelly.

Film

1931: Martin Frič films a black-and-white comedy based on the novel, starring Saša Rašilov as Švejk.

1955: The Czech animator Jiří Trnka adapts the novel as the animated film The Good Soldier Schweik (1955 film), consisting of three episodes, with Jan Werich starring as the narrator.

1956 and 1957: The Good Soldier Schweik (1956 film) – The most famous film adaptation. Czech film director Karel Steklý depicts the adventures of Švejk in two color films, starring Rudolf Hrušínský as the title character. It was nominated for the 1957 Crystal Globe Awards.

1960: In West Germany the book was adapted to black-and-white film The Good Soldier Schweik (1960 film) starring Heinz Rühmann.

1962: Velká cesta ('The Long Journey') is a Czech-Russian co-production made at Mosfilm studios in Moscow, recounting parts of Hašek's life that inspired much of The Good Soldier Švejk. It stars Josef Abraham as Jaroslav Hašek and is directed by Jurij Ozerov. * 1967-8: In Finland the book was adapted for television as a ten-part series called Kunnon sotamies Švejkin seikkailuja (The Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk), starring Matti Varjo in the eponymous role.

1972: A 13-part TV series in German, Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk (The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schwejk), directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, is made and broadcast by the Austrian state TV (ORF). The title role is played by Fritz Muliar.

1986: Czechoslovak puppetoon version Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka (The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik) appears.

2009: The Good Soldier Shweik, animated film, United Kingdom/Ukraine, directed by Robert Crombie.

Translations

It is the most translated novel of Czech literature (58 languages in 2013). Three major English-language translations of Švejk have been published:

The Good Soldier Schweik, tr. Paul Selver, 1930.

The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War, tr. Cecil Parrott, 1973; reprints: ISBN 0-14-018274-8 & ISBN 978-0-14-044991-4.

The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War, tr. Zdeněk Sadloň and Emmit Joyce, in three volumes, 1997; ISBN 1585004286, ISBN 9781585004287.